Deep Vennum Blues: Lawyer Pleads Guilty to Stealing From Clients

The big news on the lawyer-fraud front on Wednesday concerns Scott Rothstein.

But there’s more to report in the lawyers-gone-wrong department. A former Lindquist & Vennum partner pleaded guilty on Tuesday to embezzling about $2 million from the firm and clients, and using a big chunk of the money to renovate his St. Paul, Minn., home. Click here for an earlier post on the lawyer, Michael Margulies; here for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune article on his plea.

Margulies was fired from Lindquist & Vennum after an investigation found that he’d been stealing clients’ money through a fake business. The firm later found that he had also submitted false expense reports for dinners.

In his plea agreement, Margulies admitted that from 1994 to this year, he stole the money through fraudulent expense reports and invoices, as . . .